A dead whale has been spotted in the River Thames days after Hessy the Humpback was killed, the Port of London Authority (PLA) has confirmed.

It was found lifeless at Gravesend's town pier earlier this morning "caught up in some stuff" and was taken to Denton Wharf to be examined.

The whale was lifted from the River Thames water in Gravesend into a transporter

PLA spokesman Martin Garside explained there had been no reports of sightings before this morning and that the discovery is "a completely bizarre coincidence".

He added the species isn't yet known but "early signs are that it's not a humpback".

The discovery comes nearly two weeks after Hessy, the 27-foot mammal, visited the river but was killed after being hit by a ship one day later.

It's the third sighting of a whale in the past year with Gravesend favourite Benny the Beluga popping his head above water in September last year.

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The huge mammal was hoisted out of the River at around midday as a group of people from the public stood and watched.

Rob Deaville, from the Zoological Society of London, (ZSL) said: “ZSL’s Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme experts are hoping to access the whale to perform an examination over the next few days, but there is no reason to assume the two recent whale strandings in the Thames over the past week, are in any way linked.”

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